Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

I saw Labels.io briefly reviewed on the latest episode of BBC click online at first glance it appears to be a virtual talent acquisition platform. Intrigued I thought I would have a go and see how it works for me first as a punter. Having registered I then spent a few minutes adding in key words, previous employers, linking some social networks and writing a brief personal statement. I identified a problem that putting in your user name for Flickr and LinkedIn didn’t appear to let people check them, so I had to re-enter them with the full address starting from http and then you can click through on the icons on your profile page. Once completed the result looks like this: http://labels.io/mikebeckett it then rates me, giving me a rating of 41?, although I am not sure what to make of the rating as there are no other indicators of what this actually means? If you can shed some light on the spectrum of scores and what this may actually mean, please do let me know!

I tried Labels.io again as an employer to see how it works but annoyingly I couldn’t be both available to opportunities (a punter or contractor) and harnessing others human capital (as a recruiter). To progress I had to register another account. When I populated something on what I was looking for keywords, again this only took a couple of minutes. I was pleasantly surprised by my interest in the results. I was presented with a slider to see who was a high to low fit of what I wanted, this is interesting and does seem to work. I suppose this is cheaper than a recruitment consultant, headhunting on your behalf and does seem more search orientated for Employers than LinkedIn is.

Usability is high and it is easy to use quickly. Drawbacks are, I am not sure how large the pool of people are on the site so results may be limited? However on the plus side I suppose early adopters are more likely to be motivated type A personalities that employers will want. So will Labels.io be the next LinkedIn, well time will tell it certainly is fun to play with the slider and to tweak the key words as recruiter to see who might suddenly appear. Having used Label.io I just might use it if I need more staff, certainly its a quick way to see if some talent might be available to meet the requirements of your human resources strategy and what key words to use. Perhaps its most dynamic use will be interim solutions and immediate appointments, especially to cover crisis or unexpected business disruptions. I can see this be added into Business Continuity strategy’s to bolster organisations capacity when requirement is a rush job.

Overall I would recommend this to my colleagues and fellow members of the Institute of Directors, this is a useful site. I think there is a niche that Label.io can fill to increase transitional efficiency of talent management. Certainly I recommend having a look at Label.io to see if this can work for you.

This article’s based on a quick Googleplus update after trying out Label.io and reflecting on its performance since.

Once again, Ed Miliband has invited Liberal Democrats to join him.
Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat chief whip, wrote on his Facebook blog on 15/1/11 “So Ed Miliband wants Lib Dems to join Labour. After careful thought I have compiled a short list of those that I am prepared to let him have. If, after a week of having them, he still wants more then he can come back and we can discuss it. Careful what you wish for, Ed.”

I think that those attracted to Labour might have a superficial interest as I don’t think Ed Miliband’s Labour stand up to scrutiny…

What are their policies, what would they cut, what would they do differently, what responsibility are they taking and how are they helping to make things better? Refusal to compromise is not adult behaviour, adults negotiate and all I see is that Labour are right because they are Labour and they should not compromise and we others should be converted to Labour because they are right. This is so shallow, and the Unions are interested in themselves and their leadership not individuals. In my experience they are just as out of touch as Labour are.

My overwhelming thought, Dear Ed, is I know what you did last government! If I didn’t have a memory, if I did not know your record, then I might be interested. The centralisation, profligate spending, erosion of civil liberties and putting the Labour party’s priorities above the interests of the country are some of the reasons I will politely decline Ed’s offer.

I urge intelligent people tempted to vote Labour to look to building a better society, to support freedom, fairness and electoral reform and back the liberal Democrats.

The inspiration for commenting on this came from Simon and the Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/LibDemLife which I recommend and appreciation to Peter for editorial advice.

Now Ed is attacking the Unions to be seen to be strong against them, however this does look like rehearsed pantomime. I can’t believe it hasn’t been planned in advance and seems to me to just be about positioning and not about reality *sigh*

Ed my impression is that you are coming across as cold and calculating to me and wanting to win at any cost, even family, if this is what the people want then maybe our next Prime Minister will be Mr Miliband but I know I for one will oppose you at the ballot box Ed and I think others will too!

In case you don’t know I am giving wordpress a try as I am experimenting with setting up a blog and am testing formats to see what works and how it works. Before deciding on where to blog.

Previous posts as when deciding to blog I googled blog and got blogger which is no surprise to those who know blogger is owned by google, but I have received advice to shop around before I settle into blogging…

What do others think of wordpress?

Latest news we are to have another By election with Oldham tomorrow we will soon be having another one in Barnsley both caused by Labour MPs who had both broken the law even more electioneering fun!